Unwell
by SuperCombos
Summary: Marble Hornets Jay,Alex,and Tim all go to a mental asylum under diffrent circumstances that seem to link them together somehow. AU but still is close to cannon. Collab fic with cereittanyprincess15 and vicwithacam
1. Chapter 1

Day 001

Jay:

Jay looked around at the shadows with a blank expression as he sat on his bed. He hadn't left the house in who knew how long, not that he cared, he felt safer in his room, locked in there made him feel safer then he normally did when walking around the dark apartment. He didn't know why but whenever he left the comfort of his own room he felt like he was in constant danger, and for some reason he felt eyes on him wherever he went even though the blinds in his house were squeezed tightly shut so no one could peek in and watch him as he went through his daily routine. But after a few weeks of that he still felt eyes coming from the window which resulted in him pinning up dark blankets over the blinds in hopes that would result in that watched feeling to relinquish.

Now after 6 months of this he hardly left his messy room, only when he remembered that it had been a few days since he had last eaten a proper meal. The small bag of combos in his room only would go so far for the young man, so no matter how much he wanted it to it didn't last him a full week. He finally decided to ask Jessica to drop off some groceries on his doorstep.

He picked up his phone after a second, pulling the covers up closer to himself, feeling safer with the warm, heavy covers over his body as he talked. He listened as it rang a couple of times before hearing Jessica pick up: "Hello?" She didn't sound too particularly happy today, but it was too late for Jay to hang up the phone.

"Uh, hey Jessica, it's Jay. I was wondering… would you be willing to bring me some groceries? Just canned food would be nice. I'll leave the money under the matt in the front of the house before you get here all right?" Jay asked after a moment, listening to Jessica sigh a little. "I'm sorry, I would do it if I wasn't being followed all the time but-" he began after a second, trying to make her feel a little more willing to do it for him.

"Jay do you hear yourself when you talk? You're scared people are following you everywhere, and you obviously think people are going to poison your food," Jessica said sounding annoyed. Jay looked down a second fidgeting with the fabric of his blanket that was covering his body; he knew he probably seemed crazy to everyone else but he had his reasons to believe that people were following him. After a few minutes of silence between the two Jessica sighed and made a frustrated growling sound. "Fine, I'll get it, but this is the last time all right?" she finally stated.

"Thank you so much Je-" he began but Jessica hung up, causing him to frown a little at the dial tone he was listening to now. He sighed and hung up the phone, resting it atop the blankets he was wrapped in a moment, waiting a couple minutes before getting the courage and slowly sitting up again. He set his bare feet onto the soft carpeted floor before going to his desk and grabbing his wallet. He went to the window that was next to his front door, moving the dark blanket to the side after a second before using a finger to move one of the blinds down a little to look out at the bright world outside. He thought he saw a tall man in a suit outside: He whipped his head in Jay's direction to show Jay that he had no facial features, causing Jay to gasp and stumble away from the window quickly, managing to trip on the carpet and fall onto the ground, knocking the wind out of him a second. He crawled back a little to get even farther away, turning to crawl away quickly back into the comforts of his room.

When he finally got into his room once again he hid under the blankets, wrapping the material around himself tightly. His hands were gripping the fabric so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

"I-it was just your imagination Jay- just your imagination…" he tried to reassure himself but as soon as he said that he heard a bang against his left bedroom window like someone had hit it hard with the palm of his hand making the young man make a fearful sound and dart to his closet; certainly it was much safer than running out of his home like a stupid person who had never seen a horror movie in their life. He heard another soft bang on the window before a small sound of skin running down the glass made a loud squeaking sound that sent shivers down Jay's spine. "J-j-just your imagination," he repeated over and over again. Finally after a few minutes the sounds from the window ceased and Jay waited in the safety of the small closet for a good half hour before slowly opening the door; as soon as he did he instantly regretted it because the faceless man was standing in a corner of the room looking directly at the him, head tilted slightly as Jay opened the closet door.

Jay froze in his spot on the floor, staring up at the tall, slender man looking at him from the corner. He opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out except for a small pathetic squeak that formed in his throat. He shook with fear as the being started coming closer to him. It didn't even seem to be walking; it seemed almost as if it were a couple centimeters from the ground since he couldn't hear the shoes on the carpeted floor and the way it walked was far too graceful.

Jay looked at the being's shoes a second as it walked over, eyes widened before he slowly looked up at it. It was tall, not along the lines of 6 or 7 feet tall but massive in height, most likely 10, looming over the man that was crawling on all fours. "W-who are you?" He managed to say as the man got closer to him, arms extending closer to Jay who seemed to be drawn to them. He forced himself to look away once he realized he was walking towards the arms that almost seemed to hypnotize him. He shut his eyes tightly, and as soon as he did that he stopped walking towards the tall man. He let out a small cry of pain when he felt something akin to static racking around his brain before hearing a soft deep voice in the haze: 'Operator.' Jay got the impression that's what it was telling him through all the haze and fog that seemed to engulf his mind.

Jay stared up at it a second after he said that word, forgetting why he had closed his eyes in the first place before seeing the arms once again, crawling into them as they wrapped around him. The sound of the fabric surrounding him made a soft sound almost like dead leaves that seemed to relax him a second before the static began to become far more intense, his mind began to blank and within a few moments he blacked out.

An hour later the door bell was being rung over and over impatiently. Jay slowly lifted his head tiredly and looked around the room a second, not remembering why he had gotten up from his bed or why he was laying on the floor near his closet. He shifted a little to get on his hands and knees so he could lift himself up from the floor to go see who was at the door. He went back to the window, moving the black blanket to the side once again and pulling one of the blinds down a little to see who was possibly at his door before realizing Jessica had set groceries on the front porch and seemed pretty mad about something. He backed up a little and stepped on something, looking down to see that it was his wallet. He bent over and picked it up quickly before opening the door a crack, just enough that he could stick his fingers out of the door with two $20 bills. "Sorry for not leaving money out- I…kind of fell asleep," he began as he felt Jessica swipe the money away and leave before going back to her car and driving off.

Jay waited a while after he closed the door before he slowly opened it again and grabbed the bags of groceries, slamming the door quickly and locking it before carrying the bags into the kitchen, setting them onto the kitchen counter and rummaging through them. He began grabbing out the cans and putting them onto the shelves before opening a can of vegetarian big franks since it was close enough to canned meat that wouldn't go bad if it wasn't refrigerated. He started wolfing down the tofu like hot dogs eagerly, throwing the rest into the trash after eating a couple of them for fear that if he left it in the fridge someone could sneak in and poison it.

He looked around the house a few more seconds before once again feeling eyes staring at the back of his neck like daggers causing Jay to whip around to look towards the windows, nothing just his imagination, he knew that, at least that's what he told himself. He quickly walked into his room sitting on his bed again after a second, laying on his back as he looked up at the white ceiling silently before jumping as his phone began to ring.

He picked it up, checking the caller ID before answering, sounding a little worried. "Mom?" he asked after a second, not used to her calling him unless something very bad was going on in the family. He heard her almost sound like she was about to cry, making him sit up a little straighter on the bed. "M-mom what's going on? Are you ok?" he asked, expecting the worst. Had someone been killed in his family? Were the people that were following him following them as well?

"Jay… Jessica called and said you haven't left the house in a long time," she began. "She says you think someone's following you and you've been seeing things..." Jay shifted uncomfortably on the bed looking a little guilty, even though there really wasn't anything to be guilty of; he was being cautious and cautious was good.

"Yeah, mom. I haven't left the house in a few months. I'm fine though, you shouldn't worry so much," Jay said, making a small smile even though his mother couldn't see it, trying to sound and act reassuring as he spoke but what came out of his mother's mouth made him feel like something was very wrong with what he was doing. "Your father and I spoke about it and he told me that his side of the family suffers from mental illness Jay… I want you to go talk to a doctor and get some help because you might have that too."

"You think… I'm insane?" he finally said after a few moments of silence between the two except for the soft crying he could hear his mother doing on the other end of the line. She paused a moment before simply saying, "It's a possibility son. Please go see a doctor so we can be sure." Jay frowned a second, his eyes glaring at his bed sheet as he began to think; this wasn't something he thought he needed help on. He could figure it out on his own but he hated to see his mother upset, especially over him and his mental stability.

"Fine mom, I'll go," Jay finally stated after a moment before hanging up the phone, putting it down again and grabbing up his laptop, going online to Bryce Hospital's main page, finding the number and calling to make an appointment with a doctor there for later that day.

At around 5 o'clock that night he finally made his way to the door. He paused as he put his hand on the cold door knob, his hand shaking a little in fear and anxiety of going out into the dark dangerous world outside his safe utopian home. Jay slowly opened his door a second before stepping out onto the sidewalk, at first walking a little before getting the feeling of being watched again. He began to walk faster before sprinting for his car. When he finally got into the car he locked the door immediately, feeling himself relax a little along with semi safe as he started up the car and drove it out of the parking lot. He stepped on the gas when he saw the tall man in the suit standing underneath a street lamp near Jay's home as he sped off.

Bryce Hospital seemed nice; the walls outside seemed newly painted, the grass outside was a bright green and seemed to just be mowed giving it a pleasantly soft look to it, and the windows on the building looked like they was so clean they sparkled, the sun shining down on them and giving them a look of beauty. He noticed some gardeners outside trimming the bushes and trees near the sidewalk he was walking on; they stopped their work to smile and say hello but Jay was far too suspicious of people he didn't know and simply sped up to get away from them, the workers going back to their work, obviously used to people doing something similar. Maybe Jay was crazy after all? That thought seemed to scare him a little as he made his way to the large redwood doors of the building. He grabbed the handle, once again taking a moment to calm himself before opening the door and walking into the delightful lobby.

"Uhh… hi, I'm Jay McCready, I have an appointment with a Doctor C.," Jay said shyly to the nurse who was working the front desk. She looked at him giving Jay a warm smile that he didn't return before she began looking at the clip board a second, checking his name off the board and opening the door to let him go inside towards the Doctor's room to get tested for any mental illness that he could possibly have.

After going through countless tests Jay leaned back on the nice comfortable couch when the Doctor came back in and sat down on the chair across from him. He leaned forwards so his arms were resting against his legs, giving Jay a long hard stare accompanied with a soft smile at Jay who was looking down nervously, not liking being in a room with a complete stranger. His wide brown eyes slowly shifted up to look at the doctor's bright blue ones before instantly looking down quickly.

"S-so there's got to be nothing wrong with me. I'm fine right? I-I can go home?" he asked, wanting nothing more than to go home into his own little utopia and curl up under the comforting blankets in his own bedroom, never to leave his home again. This hospital visit made him want to hide away forever until the day he died; he didn't like the people in the halls that greeted him, didn't like the gardeners, or the nurse. He found them all suspicious, all planning his destruction down to the letter.

He went to stand up but the doctor put a gentle hand on Jay's shoulder and pushed him down tenderly before shaking his head a little. "I'm afraid not Jay, the tests show you have schizophrenia, paranoia and anxiety. You will be staying here until we are able to cure you of any and all mental diseases." Jay stood up quickly, shaking his head fearfully; being in a mental institute full of … people he couldn't trust just wasn't an option for him. "It's for your own good, believe me. You're safe here Jay, no one is going to hurt you." Doctor C. went on. "The nurse will take you to your room; your treatment will begin tomorrow." With that the nurse came in to take him away. It was different from the lobby: it was dirty to say the least though Jay didn't seem to mind since his home was far dirtier and more unkempt compared to this place. But…the bed was not the safe haven he had when he was at home, it was just a cheap mattress with a worn out gray blanket over the top of it. It was just as uninviting as the insane people that inhabited the building with him. He heard a loud scream down the hall and scurried quickly to his bed, hiding under his worn out, torn blanket the best he could, shaking in fear.

"Want to go home," he whispered after a couple minutes as he kept shaking but the shaking began turning into cold shivers the later it got for them. The heaters didn't seem to work in this building and the blanket was doing nothing to keep his body heat concealed inside it to warm him up. He hid his face in the pillow he had been given to hide his tears before slowly falling asleep.

XXX

Alex:

Alex looked out the window of the car, watching the scenery outside fly past as his girlfriend Amy drove down the street towards the mental hospital with a small sad look on her face. She hated to do this to her boyfriend but after all that had happened and been said she couldn't see him lasting long without some professional help. Amy's hand gripped the steering wheel tightly, making her knuckles white as snow as she thought back to the whole mess at hand:

It had started a few months ago; she had walked into their living room to see him scribbling something on paper frantically, his gaze making him appear to be in another world since they were glazed over slightly as he kept scrawling away, his left hand holding down the paper to steady it as he worked. Amy put a hand over his stationary one, his other hand still moving frantically as she held onto him before stopping after a few long seconds. His eyes kept looking down at the paper for a while before slowly looking up almost robotically at Amy, the blonde girl looking a little worried.

"Alex?" she had said after a moment but received no reply, repeating the name seemingly bringing him back to reality as he blinked up at her and gave her a small smile, dropping the pencil before hugging his girlfriend in his arms. "Alex… are you ok?" she finally asked, hugging her boyfriend back hesitantly. Alex let go of her to give her a small confused look.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be, Amy?" he finally asked, giving her a small kiss on her cheek making her smile slightly. She was still worried over the drawing incident but had said nothing about it, just thinking Alex was having an off day at the time.

But this morning had been different. Amy woke up to him writing on their bedroom walls, that blank stare he had a month before on his face once again as he scribbled away. He drew a masked man and a faceless being near what seemed to be a scribbled forest he had drawn earlier, his eyes never leaving the sketches as his pencil continued to scribble nonsense to everyone but himself. Amy watched with wide eyes before she got on her knees on the bed to watch him draw silently, taking down notes like their doctor had ordered to show the people of Bryce Hospital if the drawing and memory loss of doing so kept up.

"What are you drawing, Alex?" she asked quietly as if not to wake him of his trance just yet. Alex didn't look at her or make any movements indicating he heard her but said after a second with a monotone voice, "Operator…" Amy jotted that down before looking at Alex again. "Which one's the Operator?" Alex's hand moved quickly around the wall making a panicked movement with his pencil, making a messy circle around the faceless creature he had drawn near the scribble forest. "So who's the masked one?" she finally asked, Alex twitching a little as she said it before making a dark X with the pencil over the masked one angrily, scowling as he did it.

"Totheark," he stated quietly, his voice dripping with disgust as he said it. Amy wrote that down before looking back up, seeing Alex drawing someone else, a normal looking person with a camera in their hand towards the Operator one.

"Who's that?" Amy asked after a moment after Alex had finished drawing the person, Alex's hand suspended over the drawing a second.

"I…" he trailed off, seeming to come back around as his eyes began to lose their glaze, the pencil falling from his grip. "I don't remember." He looked over at Amy, his eyes widening with worry. "W-why don't I remember?" His head went down in defeat as he realized that Amy had been right all along; he _had_ been drawing the strange pictures on the walls and papers around their house, he just didn't remember why. At first he was sad about it but it quickly turned into anger causing Alex to strike out, leaving a pretty big dent in the wall as a result. Amy let out a small, scared scream as he did before quickly covering her mouth; she was scared, so scared that he would possibly do the same to her the next time he blanked out again. Alex turned and looked over at Amy before opening his arms up for her so they could hug. "I'm so sorry I did that, Amy," he said, hugging her tightly in his arms and feeling the tears fill up in his eyes; he felt so helpless not remembering some things.

"We need to take you to Bryce Hospital," she said after a second. "They'll be able to diagnose what's going on and help us get through it." Alex let go of her to give her a suddenly serious look; he never was one who liked doctors, they scared him more than he could ever admit to anyone. "Alex, do it for me," she said, kissing his lips softly before nuzzling under his chin to try and get him to relax a little.

"Fine we can go then I guess if you feel it will help any," he agreed tentatively, kissing her back lovingly once before getting up to go to the kitchen to make them both some coffee seeing as it was 3 in the morning and there probably wasn't any chance either of them would be going back to sleep that night. He blended up some Starbucks brand before coming back into their room with two steaming cups of the hot beverage, setting them down on the dresser near their bed. He paused a second as Amy grabbed the phone and dialed the number for Bryce Hospital to set an appointment with Doctor C. for that morning.

And here they were now with just a few more miles to go. In the back of her mind she hoped that what she was doing was the right thing for Alex, the young man that just a year prior met her in a coffee shop by chance and instantly caught her interest, managing to move in with her only after just two months of going out.

The car finally pulled up to the hospital, and to be honest it didn't really seem like such a great place. To Alex they seemed to be trying too hard to look absolutely perfect, which meant there was something they were probably trying to hide behind those closed doors. He was glad that this was just going to be a onetime visit just to try to clear up some problems. All he had to do was just prove that he was perfectly sane and he would be home free.

Hesitating a moment, Alex got out of the car with Amy and walked down the sidewalk, noticing that there wasn't even a leaf on the length of pavement the sidewalk itself was so clean, defiantly something fishy going on Alex thought as they walked to the door, opening it politely for his girlfriend before walking in after her. Well the lobby wasn't that bad even he had to admit. There were chairs lining the wall, a few paintings seemingly giving the room a more lively and relaxed feel to it. They even had faint, almost elevator-like music playing softly from the speakers around the room.

Alex sat down in one of the plush chairs, looking up at the ceiling quietly as he waited for Amy to sign him in to be examined by this random Doctor C. guy. When Amy finally sat down next to him she looked down at her lap silently, both hands clasped tightly together, her lips even quivering slightly though Alex wasn't really paying attention, busy checking out the ceiling he was looking at before stretching a little on the seat making a slightly strained sound. He finally looked over at Amy and gave her a small reassuring smile before whipping his head to where he heard the nurse call his name, telling him his appointment was ready.

The room the nurse took him in was nice as well. There was a new looking leather couch and chair set in the room, a few family photos and what Alex thought were probably a few of the patients with the apparent Doctor C. scattered around the room making it seem like the doctor had more of a life outside the office. Alex sat down on the leather seat waiting to take some sort of test when the doctor came in with a clip board.

"So about this test..." Alex began but the doctor ignored him directly before looking at Alex after he finished reading the information he had been given. "Alex Kralie, age 25; your girlfriend brought you here over the fact that you have been acting rather out of character these past few months. She claims you have been seeing things that she does not. She also says that you draw things you have no memory of drawing, and your emotions change almost instantly. I have already diagnosed you with schizophrenia as well as bipolar disorder. Now while bipolar disorder can be treated by medication schizophrenia cannot, so you will be staying here until you no longer have it."

"Now wait a second! Who gave you permission to keep me here?" Alex roared, getting up from his spot angrily, having half a mind to go over to this doctor and punch him in the face. The doctor looked over at him a second before showing him the clipboard with Amy's signature on it causing Alex to blink a little in astonishment, staggering back a few feet. Amy? His Amy would just go off and betray him like that? He couldn't believe it. The woman he had trusted this entire year had done something that Alex had hoped would dreamed she wouldn't do to him. He had told Amy his worst fear was being thought of as insane and she had in fact taken him to a mental institution which was pretty bad on its own but on top of that making him stay there without his permission was not ok by him. He took the paper defiantly, ripping it from the doctor's clip board before tearing it up into tiny illegible pieces, letting them fall down onto the brown carpeted floor gently. He then went to the door thinking that they no longer had permission to keep him here but the Doctor simply chuckled.

"That was just a copy, we have the original in your file," he said causing Alex to suddenly feel absolutely hopeless; well there went his plan on leaving without a fight. Something in the back of his head told him to run, but with the voice came a small static-like headache that seemed to get him even angrier at the situation at hand. He burst through the door thinking he would just storm out and go get Amy and force her to take him home so he could pack his bags and leave her for doing something so unforgivable. No, actually maybe he should forgive her and start anew in a different town? He would have smiled at the thought if he wasn't suddenly being held down by nurses and doctors who had seen him burst through the door violently and obviously in a rage.

He tried to get away but couldn't seem to get the strength to get out of their grasp, the aggravation of not being able to break free causing him to let out an angry yell at the group as he tried to move an arm away from them, trying to punch one of the doctor's off of him but the arm was held down before he was given the chance. He let out another small yell as he felt a needle go under his skin before almost instantly beginning to calm down from the shot they had just given him, and slowly he began to fade into sleep.

When he finally woke up again a few hours later he groggily looked around the room he was now in. He was sitting against a corner of a completely white room, not just an ordinary white room but a padded cell he only believed to be in movies. He tried to move a hand to the wall to feel its softness but his hand was constricted around his shoulders. He looked down at his hands realizing now that he was in a straightjacket. He squirmed a little in the jacket before trying to lean against the wall to use it as a way to stand up without using his arms. He walked towards the door and looked around outside at the dirty hallway outside and frowned.

Doctor C. passed by before noticing Alex looking out the small window on the door of his cell; he gave a small wave before walking into the room. "How are you feeling Alex?" he asked sounding almost happy to see his newest patient who just frowned at him silently before looking around the cell then down at his restrained arms and torso before snapping, "How do you think I'm feeling?When can I get this stupid straightjacket off anyways?"

Doctor C. looked at Alex long and hard before seeing Alex's mood change; he was a little depressed looking now instead of vicious like he had been just seconds before. "Well depending on behavior it varies. Right now just a simple 24 hours is all, and then you can go out and socialize with other patients." Alex nodded after a moment before sighing a little, going back into his corner and crouching a ways until his feet came out from under him so he fell into the sitting position he had woken up in. He really didn't like the straightjacket, it made him feel like a caged animal. He guessed that's why the doctors and nurses used it as a punishment: because of how it made people feel caged and truly insane.

"I'll see you in the morning. We'll see if you have behaved well enough to leave this room by then." With that the doctor turned and left to go see to his other patients who he needed to tend to, leaving Alex in his small space to wait until morning finally came around with his freedom.

XXX

Tim

Tim never did feel fully in control, there were just days when he felt he had more control of his body than others. There were the good days when his head only had a very small headache that he was able to tolerate, he was even able to control his body but his mind seemed to be thinking up things that seemed very out of character to even him. His mind no longer went to video games or the latest episode of Adventure Time but instead would come up with ways to end people that passed by him as he walked along the street and on bad days it seemed like both body and mind he had absolutely no control over at all. He was turned into only one of the people watching the ordeal as things unfolded before his very eyes but had no control of what his body was doing.

He never talked about those things, not wanting his friend Brian to think he was insane or something. He had seen those mental hospitals on TV before and he did not want to be going anywhere like those places anytime soon. So he kept it to himself the best he could and when he was having a bad day his other half seemed to take him to other places such as a forest or abandoned house to await orders from some tall man; Tim never remembered much after that seeing as he would get tired and completely lose any consciousness about what his body was doing until after he woke up in a closet covered head to toe in blood.

He didn't know how it all started or why him, he just knew it had been about a year since he remembered the first time this had happened: It was after someone in his school had left, though he didn't know the guy's name or anything as far as he knew. He just knew it had happened a couple days after that kid left that this stuff had all began happening to him. First, waking up hiding under his friend's Seth's bed in the middle of the night covered in his friend's blood and no sign of him anywhere.

The second time he had woken up in a forest a few miles away from his and Brian's home. He had wanted to call Brian to pick him up but his phone's battery was dying and there was no service in the woods. He just winged it at the time and walked the few miles it took to get out of the woods and back into town, going to 'In & Out Burger' and having the best half-pound burger he had ever tasted in his life.

There had been over a dozen times he had woken up in places he didn't remember going to sleep in but he had always given excuses that Brian always seemed to believe when Tim came home after a night of Brian worrying over his friend's whereabouts. But the last time they had cut it a bit short when he woke up in their back yard after his other half had decided to leave dead animals on Brian's and his back porch like how a cat does with their master but something didn't seem right about it… it was something he had seen in Seth's back yard too when he had tried to sneak out of Seth's house through the back yard and had nearly stepped on a dead rabbit and mice. It was almost like he was giving his targets a clue that they were next.

Brian had finally gone to sleep after a long day of rock climbing with a few of his other friends, planning on taking a small nap before helping Tim cook in the kitchen. He slept a good hour when he was startled awake by something slamming against a wall and a low inhuman growl coming from a few feet away from where his head was. Brian looked over where he heard the noise and saw what seemed to be Tim in a mask.

"Tim… mind keeping it down? I'm trying to sleep," Brian mutter groggily to his friend as he crawled towards him on all fours. He said nothing, instead just head tilting at Brian, staring at him blankly from behind the mask he was wearing before going to the edge of the couch and balancing perfectly on the couch arm in a crouching position, watching Brian who looked clearly confused before throwing a pillow at Tim playfully. Tim wasn't usually good at catching anything, and if it had been him he probably would have ended up falling to the ground and laughing at Brian for being such a jerk but, to Brian's surprise even during his sleep-clouded mindedness, he caught the pillow. He growled a little, throwing the pillow back before putting his hands on the arm as well, looking like he was about to pounce.

"Tim? H-Hey buddy…it's me. Brian?" Brian said as he slowly got off the couch and backed up a few steps trying to stay clear of the masked man in from of him. The masked man quickly jumped onto the couch cushions walking on all fours as if it was just as natural for him to do that than walking on just two legs. He put his hands on the other couch arm close to where Brian was before using his back legs to pounce off the couch with and lunged at Brian angrily, once again growling at him.

While Tim was doing a good job catching Brian off guard he was outmatched by height. Brian managed to roll him off him and pin him down. "Tim what had gotten into you bro?" Brian asked panicking a little before trying to take the mask off to show that he was done playing around but as he let go of one of Tim's arms to reach for the painted plastic Tim instantly struck out and clawed at Brian's face causing him to make a small pained sound. Still managing to take the mask off quickly and throw it on the other side of the room he then pinned the arm down again and waited until Tim became a little more laggish in movement before seeming to fall asleep while Brian kept his hold on him.

Within a few minutes Tim opened his eyes again, Brian's grip around his arms tightening as he thought there was going to be another fight on his hand but instead Tim began to frown a little "Dude, let go of me," Tim said after a second pulling his wrists away from Brian and looking at his bruised wrists that were being held to tightly "The heck man?"

"Y-You attacked me first," Brian retorted as he got off of Tim who was blinking at Brian a second before looking down. "Why the hell would you attack me? I mean, I thought we were friends!" Brian exclaimed, looking absolutely betrayed. Tim sat up before looking down and away from Brian who was frowning at Tim now. "Answer me bro!"

"Look, Brian, I think it's about time I told you that I think I have a split personality..." He let out a deep breath and tried to get it all sorted out in his own head, the image of brain staring at him with such fear and hurt in his eyes burning itself into his mind. "It started after that one kid at school skipped town; I think he did something to me or something. I mean I wasn't like this before he left and all of a sudden as soon as he leaves I start waking up in closets or under beds…" Tim tried to explain but it just came out as ranting about what had been happening. He let out the whole story, how he thought his other half killed Seth and the others, how he had been leaving dead animals on people's doorsteps and even waking up cuddling a weird tall doll that he guessed was supposed to represent his other side's boss.

"I think we have to do it then…" Brian eventually said solemnly, causing Tim to panic a little.

"Do what exactly?" Tim finally asked in a still panicked tone as Brian stood up to grab his car key. When Brian came back in he still had a frown but this time he had more of a sad vibe to Tim. He looked down again at the carpeted floor, running a hand through the soft carpet feeling like he had a guilty conscious though he didn't know why; it wasn't like he had any control over what had happened a few minutes ago.

"Take you to that mental hospital..." Brian finally said before gently grabbing his friend by the arm. Tim would have disagreed but any excuse to escape was stopped when he saw the scratches on Brian's face his other half had given him. He lowered his head once again before nodding in defeat. "I'm sorry Tim," Brian finally stated once they were both in the car; he knew how his friend disliked mental hospitals but he knew it was for Tim's own good.

"No Brian, I'm sorry," Tim said after a moment, looking at the dashboard blankly; he had half a mind to jump out the speeding car then and there, half to get away the other to end his life after coming up with images of what might happen if his other half woke up while he was around other patients in the mental hospital with him. He dreaded it all and was already apologizing in his head for everything he might do when his other half took over when they got there.

There was an awkward silence that flooded the car the whole rest of the ride to the hospital. When they finally got there Tim let out a small nervous laugh. "Man it's like something out of a horror film," he admitted jokingly, his voice sounding a little scared as they both started getting out of the car. Tim suddenly felt very small and afraid much like a child at the doctor's about to get a painful shot, wanting nothing better than to go hide behind Brian and beg to go home but he knew better than that, he was supposed to be tough after all, he had to man up no matter how creeped out he was.

Well the front looked kind of nice but the antenna on the top of the hospital kind of freaked him out, seeing as it was a little too old school for his taste. He was hoping this place would be cool, have some nice big screen TVs with hundreds of channels on it so he could watch his Adventure Time or something since he doubted that a mental asylum had any violent video games for their insane patients to play.

He walked in and took a small sigh of relief as they walked in and he saw computers on the front desk where the nurse was working. She was kind of good looking, brown hair and eyes just how he liked his women, but he doubted that she would go for short, dark and insane young bachelors like him so he just sent a small smile her way before being taken to meet with the doctor.

When he met Doctor C. he thought he was an ok guy, kind of freaky looking like that Hannibal Lector guy from those amazing movies he had watched a few months back with Brian but of course without the straight jacket and mouth piece to keep him from biting people open. Tim sat down on the chair acting as nonchalant as he could here.

"So why are you here today Mr. Bradley?" Doctor C. finally asked and Tim stopped leaning on the couch, resting his arms on his legs a second to get a little closer as if telling him a secret.

"Well you see my friend Brian brought me here after my split personality tried to kill him. So we had some tea, talked over a couple rounds of Halo, and decided to bring me here so I can skip around like a loon until I'm cured," he said sarcastically causing Doctor C. to chuckle a little at Tim's response.

"I have to say you have a good sense of humor, I don't see that often here," he said with a chortle in his voice, slapping his knee as if he got a good kick out of Tim's sarcasm before becoming serious once again. "Well let's get down to the point shall we. Your friend out there, Brian, says you suffer from split personalities, or Dissociative Identity Disorder. Is that the only mental illness you have or is there anything else I should know of?"

Tim paused a moment to seriously consider that question, thinking back over the year to see if there was anything he left out but came up with nothing so he slowly shook his head. "I don't think so," he replied honestly, "Not that I know of at least." The doctor nodded before getting out of his chair, Tim following after him silently as he walked out his office. He looked down as he noticed Brian was still at the counter talking with the nurse about his friend and how he was hoping he was going to end up ok. Brian saw Tim come out of the room and looked down as well, feeling guilty for bringing him here fully knowing that Tim didn't like places like this.

Tim lifted his head up a little as they walked through some doors walking through the dirty hallways silently. It was dusty and dirt covered the floor but he guessed most normal psychopaths that roamed these halls really didn't care if this place was dirty or not. He was led past a tiny room where a young brown haired man was curled up under his small torn blanket and shivering in his sleep. His green hat had fallen on the ground earlier and was lying haphazardly on the ground near his bed; Tim only looked at the man a moment before he kept walking and ending up room or two away from the man. This room was a little bigger in size, complete with two cheap mattress beds and gaining an inaudible sigh from him; great, he was going to have a crazy roommate too, this was making today even worse for the young man.

The doctor showed him where everything was before taking him back to his room and letting his rest. Tim sat in a corner of the room silently watching as some of the patients passed by his doors, a few even turning their heads to stare at him as they tried to place the new face in the building. Some seemed perfectly normal but others would giggle and twitch insanely which left no doubt in his mind that he was in the right place for the mentally ill.

"Could today get any better?" he asked himself, closing his eyes as he felt a small uncomfortable itch in the back of his mind. His hand went to his pocket to grab out the unlabeled pills but came up empty handed, remembering that he had taken them out of his pocket at home before his other half had taken over. Tim sighed a little as he kept his eyes closed, thinking over the small fact that the last he checked there was no way to cure a split personality and how the mental hospitals didn't let people leave until they were completely cured. He choked back a small sob, putting a hand to his mouth to stop the pathetic sound that came out of his throat, feeling his stomach drop and the hopelessness begin. He was probably going to die here; he would never see Brian again, never have another girlfriend, never get married, and never eat McDonalds or Denny's again. It was totally depressing the young man. He looked with a sneer at his disgusting new bed that had seen many nights and many unstable young humans who had come and gone.

He slowly got into the bed and curled up as well, almost animal-like, under the covers and watched the people who walked by his room. Even here everyone Tim saw would cause him to get small images in his head on how he would kill them and how no human would be able to stop him from getting away. The thoughts that lingered like that scared him but he didn't fight them, he had given up the battle with his illness and let it control his life seeing as there was no way to cure it anyways. He looked at the old alarm clock that was lying on the floor, watching as time slowly passed him by, becoming more and more tired as time passed so slowly.

At 10 o'clock the nurses came and closed his room door, locking it from the outside and causing Tim to panic a little. He got out of bed and tried to jiggle the handle bar before sighing deeply, noting that this was the time most his freedom went right down the drain. He put a fist to the door and at 10:30 the lights went off through the whole area, leaving everyone in completely darkness. Tim had to crawl to his bed to get there safety before curling up under the blankets again; even his tan jacket wasn't keeping him warm and neither was the blanket he had been given. It was nicer than most of them he had seen but it was pretty thin, more like a bed sheet than a blanket but he didn't complain. At least it was better than the 90% of other blankets he had seen on this wing of the asylum.

He kept watch on the time, _tick tock tick tock goes the clock_ his mind went, the imaginary sounds momentarily started having his inner process in binary before going back to normal as he began to fall asleep, letting his other half rise.


	2. Chapter 2

Night 001 - Morning 002

Tim:

The masked man rose from sleep, looking around the pitch black room a second from the comforts of the disgusting bed that his human seemed to have fallen asleep on. He could see well in the dark since his master needed him to be able to run around in the forest far from town in the pitch black of night to hunt for him. Speaking of his master he probably needed him now; the masked man slowly stood up, listening as the mattress screeched as he jumped off the bed and on the cold floor silently.

He went to the door quickly, jiggling the knob a couple times to find that it was locked, just as he figured. He growled at the closed for as his mind began to whirl; he just needed to figure out how to unlock it without a key, a problem he had been faced with before when his human tried to keep him contained before he let him do as he pleased, even if he didn't want to. He looked around the room before his eyes saw a red light blinking in the far side of the room; he crawled over and looked up at the corner near the ceiling where the light blinked, indicating that a camera was recording his whereabouts. That wasn't something he wanted, growling at it the device through his mask, the static sound echoing throughout his vocals disrupting the camera's wires until it stopped recording, the feed in the Doctor's office now just a static picture.

Now he had to move quickly before the humans came after him. He scurried to the door, putting his hand to the metal and feeling for an electrical current, finding it. Good, he could get out of here quickly, now where was the electric password lock in his room? He felt for it near the door and made a happy inhuman chirp before the password box glitched out and began to smoke, taking only a few seconds before the door slowly opened for him. Success, now to find his master or the humans he needed to find to lead him out of here and to the ark.

The hallways were silent, cameras recording everything which made the masked man a little frustrated; it took a lot of energy to make all the cameras in single a hallway glitch out so he just needed to go quickly from room to room and try to confuse the doctors as to where he really was, after all he could teleport from one room to another if his master let him. He unlocked all the doors from the outside quickly so he wouldn't end up getting stuck in a room on accident before he fell upon a much different door.

He heard someone running down the hall and whipped around to see a doctor and nurse come towards him quickly. He growled a little as he opened the door he had come to and ran in, hurriedly locking himself inside until the doctors passed the room thinking he ran off.

"W-who's there?" came the voice that the masked man knew belonged to Alex Kralie, the young film director that had ran away from his master after he had made all the cast members disappear through Alex's own hands . The masked man slowly crawled over to the young man, feeling the material and buckles of the straightjacket and smiling slightly; Alex was bound, that was good.

"I don't have a name," he whispered before looking back at the bound young man he was leaning on a tad; he heard Alex about to yell which resulted in the nameless man to put his hand over Alex's mouth, still hearing the doctors nearby talking about which way his other half might have ran off to. This was funny; the faculty still thought that Tim was in control. He would have laughed if he had emotions other than fear.

He looked back at Alex, glaring through the eye holes of the painted plastic hiding his face: "Be quiet." He kept his hand over Alex's mouth until he heard the footsteps leave and he looked over at the bound human again. He sighed once he was sure the two humans outside were gone before removing his hand from Alex's mouth and slowly going towards the door before realizing that this room had had a camera too. Within just a minute or two the doctors would be back and take him back to that room. It took a second before the camera glitched out like his own did and broke before the masked man ran towards the door, opening it and stepping out again but instead of being in the dark hallway he was in another room.

He looked around the room, quietly letting the camera record; he wasn't planning on staying here long anyways, just long enough to pass through until he heard the room's occupant talk in their sleep. They were whispering 'Operator', the name of the masked one's boss. He slowly crawled over to the bed and tensed when he felt something under his hands. He picked it up to examine it in the dark and lo and behold it was a hat; not just any hat, a worn one that had a small little worn out spot on it. He knew this hat: it belonged to the cameraman who had been looking for Alex.

He didn't understand why they were all in the same building but he knew his orders of what he was supposed to do once Brian was out of the way, before he had been sent to this place: watch Jay. He sat by the wall closest to the bed, leaning against the brick wall silently as he kept an eye on his master's prey before his head snapped up as the door opened causing Jay to wake up. Flashlights shone in their faces causing Jay to cover his eyes and Tim's other half to growl and try to crawl somewhere in the dark to get away from the blinding light but it was no use, the doctors were about to catch him and take him back to that room, locking him away for good.

He didn't want that at all so he instinctively went on all fours low to the ground and growled angrily before lunging at one of the doctors, scratching at his face and neck furiously, feeling as some blood oozed out from under the skin before lunging on another one. This human was a female and did the same to her after he noticed she had something sharp in her hands; a syringe. He grabbed it away quickly and looked at the other doctors that now looked horrified instead of excited to have found the masked man like they had moments before.

He crawled off the two bleeding humans slowly and growled lowly at the two other doctors who slowly walked out of the room as if letting the masked man go about his business before one pressed a red button in the hall. The hall lights flickered on and other red lights flashed letting the other employees of the asylum know there was something bad going on and if that wasn't bad enough a loud alarm went on that pierced the young man's ears.

He yelped in pain, putting his hands to his ears to drown out the sound, trying to run away quickly and hide somewhere before noticing that Jay had woken up and was staring at him with wide eyes. No, he wasn't supposed to know he had been watching him; not yet at least. He crawled over to the panicked Jay who tried to scoot away but ended up falling completely out of the bed. He grabbed Jay's arm firmly and pulled out the syringe before putting the medication inside the squirming other man who almost instantly began to fall asleep from the drugs again.

The masked man quickly closed the door before opening it again and appearing in his own room and running full speed towards the lobby where the doors to freedom were waiting for him. He was excited, so close to getting out and being near his master again, near the static that comforted him during his daily routines for him. But that thought was short lived when someone pushed him to the ground and doctors piled on top of him so he couldn't get away. He writhed angrily under the doctors trying to get away from them before he felt a needle in his side. He growled in pain before feeling the medication in his system but instead of calming him down he began to shake and have a seizure from the drugs before passing out underneath the doctors. They calmed down and slowly picked him up, taking him to a similar padded room like Alex had been in. They put a straightjacket around Tim's body before taking him to a little interrogation room so when he woke up they could question him.

It was a few hours before the nameless side of Tim woke up again, growling a little in frustration when he tried to get out of the straightjacket they had put him in in his sleep. He looked around the empty room, seeing that he was the only person in there and the furniture in the room was metal and bland. He irritably tried to push the table away with his feet but ended up in surprise as his chair began leaning back and falling with him in it onto the floor. He looked up at the ceiling a second and noticing a couple cameras there. He growled, unable to sit up yet and not close enough to the camera to break them.

He then felt the familiar static in the room, causing him to purr a little excitedly and look around as best as he could before he saw him, the tall faceless being in the corner of the room watching his servant quietly as he squirmed off the chair and tried to get up so he could go over to his master and await orders. When he finally managed to crouch near him he looked up at the tall man and made a happy chirp, getting a few head pats in return, causing him to purr lovingly again. He was probably the only being that ever received such loving gestures from the violent being but then again he knew he was considered a loyal pet in The Operator's eyes and the masked man truthfully didn't seem to mind that status. He enjoyed being near The Operator, he strangely felt safe near it which, to say the least, was odd.

The Operator had killed many people in the thousands of years it had lived. Tim's other half had only helped in a couple hundred of those murders in the past year or two but he got rewarded for them. He didn't mind how small the reward was, be it a simple pat on the head or static messages in his brain that would tell him that he was doing a good job; he felt needed and that was all that mattered to the young proxy.

"I found Jay and Alex," the masked one whispered quietly though he knew that when The Operator was around the audio of any recorded footage would end up distorting so he didn't need to worry about talking loud. The Operator didn't usually like its proxy talking at all and if he had to it wanted his speech to be soft and little worded if necessary. The Operator petted the masked man's hair gently as reward; 'You never cease to deliver,' was the message he heard which was a good enough reward for him but the petting just showed him how proud it must be of him.

The masked man looked down. "Couldn't kill Brian," he whispered after a second and as soon as he said that the petting stopped, the faceless head looking down at him. He tensed a little at the static feeling the air it felt frustrated and Masky felt suddenly very small and afraid. "Tried to but he woke up before I could," he tried to explain and as soon as Operator heard that he seemed to calm down, the static in the air went back to normal causing masky to calm down as well and sigh with relief as the petting began again for a few minutes before stopping as the door in the room opened.

Doctor C. walked into the room with a small smile on his face and looked towards the masked man that was sitting near the corner of the room looking at the Doctor blankly before seeming to look up towards the ceiling at something. Doctor C couldn't see that the tall man was in the room with him thankfully but he could tell something wasn't right in the room, he ignored the feeling and pulled Masky up, picking the chair up for him and gently setting him down, ignoring all the growling the other housed by Tim's body was making. He set himself down in the chair opposite of the masked man and smiled again, putting out a voice recorder and pressing record.

"So who are you? I know you're not Tim so, what's your name?" he asked curiously, the masked man staring at the doctor blankly before looking up towards the ceiling again, this time making a small happy sound at it. Maybe this side of him was having hallucinations like some of the other newer patients. It took a few minutes before he began to cooperate with the doctor.

"I don't have a name," the masked man replied at long last, keeping his answers short and simple since The Operator was still there behind him and besides it had made it so if he talked a lot it hurt him a little.

"Then what would you like to be called?" the Doctor said simply and the masked man shrugged a little bit. He had never been given the option to be called anything before; looking up at The Operator, the static in his brain gave him the name it decided would be fitting: "Keith," he said after a second. The name wouldn't mean anything to normal people who weren't intelligent when it came to name meanings but to others it meant 'forest' which The Operator thought was fitting seeing as it had something to do with itself and that just gave it another way to control the young proxy.

Doctor C. nodded a little and wrote that down before looking at him again. "So when did you meet Tim?" he asked, Keith tilting his head a little before making a soft static sound again as he thought before saying, "Was about a year ago, he was walking in the woods." He stopped there, trying to only give short answers. The doctor looked curious now at that, wanting to hear more of the story. He gave him an interested look but Keith wasn't paying attention again, looking up at whatever he was seeing near the ceiling, purring at more head pats that The Operator was giving him when Doctor C. cleared his throat in an attempt to get the masked man's attention.

"What?" Keith finally asked, sounding a little annoyed now like he was angry that after all he explained this Doctor C. guy was still bugging him over something as stupid and pointless as bringing up the past. He leaned back in the chair carefully since he had no way to attack the doctor on the other side of the table seeing as his hands were strapped firmly to his shoulder. "He didn't meet me. First he met Master-" He let out a small yelp as the hand that was petting him suddenly grabbed a little of his hair on the back of his head into a tight fist; he said something he wasn't supposed to… Well, it was too late to take it back now.

"Master?" Doctor C. asked as he scooted a little closer to the edge of his seat, resting his arms on the table and looking very interested now. Keith paused a second before replying in a pained whisper. "The Tall One," he stated simply before seeming to relax as Operator's grip loosened around his hair and began petting him again. Doctor C. looked at him curiously before smiling. "The Tall One? That's a strange name don't you think?" Doctor C. finally questioned after a few minutes but blinked as Keith shook his head a little before resting his masked cheek on the cold metal table and sighing a tiny bit. Humans were so stupid, they never seemed to get that his master had multiple nicknames and that the one he just gave him was the most obvious one besides the Slender Man title he had received from the internet just a few years before after some young man online started posting pictures of him and writing about how he looked and acted. He had been thought of as a very popular internet meme while in reality he was as real as the doctor right in front of him.

"Has many names," he finally said but didn't say any more. The questioning went on for another hour but Keith didn't reply to any of them, just making a few small inhuman sounds. A couple just sounded like static as he opened his mouth but as the hours started wearing down he began to purr more as Operator kept petting him before Keith began to fall asleep, his face still resting on the table. Doctor C. called in a few nurses and had him placed in a wheelchair, rolling him down the now quiet halls, setting Keith down in a padded room next to Alex's. He felt as though there were eyes on him after he laid the proxy on the padded floor, looking around the room before shrugging a little to himself before leaving the room to go wake up the rest of the patients in the facility.

XXX

Jay:

He had had a terrible night's sleep the first night there, waking up multiple times during the night with no recollection for a few seconds as to where he was and what he was doing there until the memories of the day before began to flood back in his mind and make him feel hopeless again. He would stay awake for a while after those moments, hearing the laughter from only a few rooms down. Then he'd hide under the blankets fearfully for a few minutes before he fell asleep once again.

The last time he had woken up that night was involuntary; the alarm out in the hall sounded loudly and caused Jay to jump up a few feet from the bed and look around, noticing the doctors in his room. At first he thought they were after him and he froze in fear, covering his eyes from the bright lights they were flashing in his face until he heard a growl right behind him. Jay slowly looked behind him to see a masked man crawling towards the door where the doctors were, attacking a few of them before turning to look back at him. Jay was scared, hell, he was more than scared, he was absolutely _terrified_ of whoever was under that mask. He scooted away from him, suddenly finding himself at the edge of the bed and feeling his stomach drop as he lost his balance and fell on his back when he hit the ground. He had planned on crawling away when he felt a firm hand on his wrist force him to stay where he had landed before he felt a painful pinch, then a warm feeling slowly go through his entire body as the medication went through his veins, shortly feeling a little less panicky and in need of sleep. He closed his eyes and didn't wake until he felt someone carefully lift him into a wheelchair, the seat still warm from its previous inhabitant as he was taken into another interrogation room.

He was still a little out of it from the drugs, his eyes a little glazed over but he was coming around when a doctor slowly walked into the room; he recognized him as the one that had told him he had to stay here. He had forgotten his name, he knew it was easy but he couldn't bring his mind to remember it just yet. He put the palm of his hands on the nice cold metal table in front of them, trying to get the warm feeling from the medication to go away from the tips of his fingers.

His naturally wide eyes looked over at Doctor C. tiredly as he sat down, having the feeling that the doctor thought he looked terrible right now, but who would blame him? Jay looked tired and pale from the shot he had received from the masked man. He opened his mouth to say something but it came out as a violent coughing fit. He covered his mouth so he didn't cough on everything in case he was starting to become sick unless… He paused mid-cough, his hand suspended over his mouth as his mind began to race. The shot the man gave him? What was in it? It couldn't have just been medicine, they looked like they were trying to take him down, not just sedate him… Suddenly he began to panic as he kept coughing violently, looking at Doctor C. as it started to subside. "W-what was in the syringe? Poison?" he demanded, trying to act like he wasn't panicking as much but the doctor laughed a little at him as he asked that.

"Of course not Jay, it was just medicine that makes patients that are a little out of hand to calm down and sleep for a while until we can move them to a safer location for them and the other patients," Doctor C. explained as he put the audio recorder down and pressed record again, looking at him as his expression grew a little more serious. "Do you know who that patient was? The one who snuck into your room tonight?"

Jay looked at the recorder a second before looking back into the doctor's eyes, shaking his head a little. "No, I've never seen him before I saw him in my room," he admitted but his breathing began to get a little more shaky. "Why? D-did he say he knows me?" Jay felt like people had been following him for the past few months and with this masked man in the picture the feeling seemed to drag on even more slowly than normal. He felt like everyone was watching him even though there was no one else in the room.

Doctor C. shook his head a little as he looked at Jay. "He talked about someone he claims is his master, called them 'The Tall One', does that ring any bells?" he asked before Jay slowly shook his head as well. Looking down at the table, he thought he saw a tall man in a suit's reflection in the reflection but when he whipped around he didn't see anyone there. He was now gasping for air, panicking a little before he began to relax again slowly looking over at the doctor.

"Did you see something?" the doctor finally asked once Jay calmed down. Jay looked behind himself again before nodding a little; he knew the doctor would think he was even more insane than he already did now since when he turned there was nothing there but a white brick wall. "What was it?"

"I don't know what I saw..." Jay finally admitted, looking down at the table in defeat. "It looked tall from what I saw from the reflection on the table…" was all he could explain as he sat there. The other questions after that were normal ones asking about what the masked man did when he was in the room before he finally let Jay go.

Jay walked down the hall quietly before he heard a yell from one of the doors in front of him. His head told him to keep going but he was curious as to who was in the room. He looked through the window and saw a young man sitting in the padded room, arms tied back in a straightjacket and keeping him restricted on the floor where he looked around, silently begging for an escape. He had dark brown hair and this slightly wild look in his eyes but he didn't seem all that crazy to Jay. His hair kind of made him look like the masked man but there was no mask in sight from what he could see.

The man looked at Jay a second before completely shutting up and just staring at him with a blank stare; that guy looked familiar to him but he couldn't place where he had met him before. Maybe he was one of the people that had passed by his room last night but- the hat on his head. Oh, he must have been the guy who was sleeping a few rooms down from him when he was in his normal room. But he hadn't seen his face at that time, so he figured he must have met him somewhere before when they were thought to be sane.

Jay moved to leave, freeing the man from his spell and making him speak up. "H-hey!" the person called after him but as he heard the yell Jay booked it down the hall. He had thought he looked familiar too but he didn't know why. He thought the man might have followed him before and he met him in the street a while ago before he started hiding in his house alone. Would the people following him really go as far as go and live in an asylum just to keep an eye on him for who knows what reason? Well he wasn't about to stick around and ask the man in the padded room.

He finally stopped running as he got near his room, glancing around to make sure no one was watching him. When he finally got inside he hid under the covers before he heard the other rooms unlock and the nurses come by and get all the patients up to go get breakfast. Jay finally got up and went to the cafeteria with the others before getting in line for some food, as if he'd really eat what they gave him. He wasn't an idiot, he knew that just about anyone could sneak something into the food what with it being out in the open like that.

When he got his plate he stared at all the food blankly before sitting down at a table by himself, moving his food around and feeling rather uninterested in eating it, too fearful someone had poisoned it regardless that the other patients were eating it and seemed fine. He only ate the fruit cup since it was sealed food; he wolfed it down eagerly before putting the rest in the trash and just sitting at the table quietly before seeing someone walk towards him that seemed to be around his age.

The young man wore glasses and had nice brown hair. He gave Jay a small smile before sitting across from him, waiting for a slight approval that it was ok. He started eating his own food before noticing Jay was staring at the sealed food that he had been given, the other man slowly handing it to Jay who looked up at him suspiciously. He looked at the container closely to see if it was punctured at the top or opened slightly. When he saw it wasn't he gave a small smile to show his appreciation and wolfed it down as well, seeming livelier now.

"Uhh, thanks," he murmured, not used to talking to strangers and regardless of that he was naturally shy. The stranger gave a little smile to him and kept eating his own food as well before handing him his unopened apple juice he had been given as well, Jay looking that over too before opening and taking a hesitant sip of it. It seemed fine so he chugged the rest of it down, not used to having much food or drink since he was too paranoid of someone trying to kill him.

"I can go back up there and ask the cooks for more sealed food for you if you want?" the young man offered but Jay shook his head instantly, not wanting the patient to have to do something for him, a complete stranger. He got up anyways and when he came back he held two more sealed cups of peaches for Jay who looked a little bad for making the man get stuff for him and he didn't even know the poor guy's name.

"So…" Jay began not used to making conversation anymore "What's your name?" Jay sounded a bit nervous as he asked but the director smiled a little at him, the way this guy acted reminded him of someone but he couldn't put a finger on which it could possibly be. He watched as Jay ate the sealed peaches before looking a little more active now and willing to talk and listen to someone when they were talking to them.

"My name's Alex," he said, suddenly feeling a bit unsure if telling him his real name was a good idea; he knew this place was filled with mentally ill people and he had no idea what Jay had, for all Alex knew this guy could react badly to something and try to kill someone here and that someone could be him. Jay smiled a tiny bit and put a unsure hand out to shake, Alex taking it and smiling again thinking that this guy seemed too nice to be violent then again he was sure people would think the same of him and if he got mad he blanked out and striked at anything in front of him.

"I'm Jay," the young cameraman said with a small unsure smile before letting go of the hand and taking another big gulp of his apple juice. "Not to pry but- why are you here?" Jay asked, sort of unsure of if he should ask that or not but Alex didn't seem to mind the question. He thought over what that Doctor C. said before looking at Jay seriously.

"Well I woke up and my room was full of pictures of things I didn't recognize and my girlfriend said I was the one who wrote them. Other than that the doctor said I suffer from schizophrenia and I have a bit of bipolar disorder," He stated he knew saying a _bit_ of bipolar was a lie but he didn't want to scare the young man, he seemed like he would make a good friend while being stuck here.

"Oh, well the doctor said I had schizophrenia too, as well as paranoia and anxiety," Jay said after he looked around to make sure no one else was listening in on their conversation. Alex nodded a little before Jay looked a little curiously at him. "So what kinds of things did you dra-" he started out but a bell rang meaning their breakfast was done and their first treatment was going to start soon. Alex stood up, smiling at his new friend before throwing what was left of his food in the trash and leaving.

Jay stood there a second before leaving out the doors, following a ways behind the crowd towards the first room they had to go through that day.

XXX

Alex:

Alex didn't sleep at all that night, he was too busy staring blankly through the dark padded room waiting for someone to come in though he didn't know who. His mind was telling him that any minute now that someone would come through that door and that he needed to attack and the mess would all be over. He tensed when he heard the door open, he was too scared to talk for a moment but when he finally had the courage he stated, "W-who's there?" He wanted his voice to sound a bit threatening in case it was someone dangerous but it came out more of a pathetic scared sound. He cursed himself in his head for that before hearing someone crawl towards him and lean against him.

"I don't have a name," the other person in the room whispered; the man was close to him, leaning against him in fact yet all he could see was the white and black of the mask a few inches from his face causing Alex to pause. He wanted someone to get him off of him since he couldn't protect himself from the person who was leaning against him but right as he opened his mouth to yell a hand clapped down over it, stopping all noise before it had a chance to escape. He heard as the doctors paused outside their room and was tempted to bite the man's hand so as soon as he moved his hand away he could try to get their attention. "Be quiet," the masked man said almost threateningly, Alex instantly forgetting any plan to hurt him for fear of being hurt himself.

When the doctors left the masked man sighed and let go before quickly going towards the door to take his leave, making sure to do something to the camera before doing so. He once again left Alex in complete darkness alone but within a few minutes some people came into his room and shined flashlights in Alex's face and around the room, seeing that the masked man was no longer in there before leaving again.

He waited there a few hours before he saw Doctor C. escort a nurse pushing someone in a wheelchair in the room beside his, out cold and sporting his own straightjacket. He strained to get a better look from his place on the floor but couldn't see who it was, giving up when he lost sight of him. After the person was placed in the room the door closed and Alex's opened, letting Doctor C. walk in and sit near him quietly. "So I heard someone came into your room a few hours ago. Did you know them?"

Alex frowned a little before shrugging. "How would I know? They had a mask on their face to hide who they were," he replied, looking away as the doctor wrote his words down on the little clipboard. Doctor C. looked at him again, Alex feeling the eyes on his own and fighting the urge to snap at him, literally forcing himself not to as he held the stare. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and talk to some people and feel at least semi-sane.

"Did he do anything to you?" the doctor asked after a few minutes and Alex slowly shook his head. "Ok, well that's all I needed to ask you. You also seem to be not as violent so you can leave this room. Breakfast is about to be served so you can get ready for that if you'd like." Doctor C. moved so he was near Alex as he undid the straightjacket, loosening all the belts on the side and lifting it over Alex's head. Alex stretched his arms and body letting his joints crack a little to make him feel less stiff before he started for the door with the doctor, staggering as the blood rushed from his elbows and back into his legs. "Now if you act violently towards the patients you'll be right back in here."

"Yeah, I know," Alex retorted before walking down the lighted hallway and into the cafeteria, noticing that it was already pretty packed. He went to the line, grabbing a plate and getting food quickly before looking for a place to sit. His eyes casted upon a young man about his age picking almost sadly at his food before wolfing down the only sealed item on his plate and throwing the rest away. Alex looked down at his own food, seeing that all he had that was sealed was the small fruit cup and apple juice but he didn't mind giving them to the young man, after all a human can't survive on just a small fruit cup for breakfast.

Alex smiled as he sat down, trying to appear friendly and offering his food to make sure he got at least a little more food in his stomach. He watched unsatisfied as the smaller man quickly ate up the diced fruit and decided that he couldn't let him starve. Ignoring the shy uncertainty of his companion and convincing him that it was no trouble, he headed back over to the now clear food line, pushing his glasses closer to his face as he got the cook's attention. "Could you get some more sealed food for the young man over at the table I'm sitting at, please? He won't eat anything else."

The cook looked over at the shy boy, recognizing his signs from past patients and noticing just how thin he looked. He was fiddling with Alex's apple juice container, rocking it back and forth before taking tiny sips and flinching as his stomach tried to adjust to adjust to the feeling of actually having food within it, keeping his eyes on the table the entire time. The cook turned back to Alex and nodded, earning a small smile from the bespectacled man as he took the two cups from her. "Thank you, I'm sure he'll appreciate it a lot when the time comes to eat." With that Alex left back to the table to talk with his new friend. Something about this guy seemed really familiar but he didn't know why. Maybe he had seen him somewhere else or something. Didn't matter he guessed so he just didn't think about it anymore as they sat there talking, awkwardly exchanging names and shaking hands, Alex finding out that the person he was speaking with was named Jay and learning exactly why he was there, disclosing his own reason as well, although after the hand shake his mind began to wander, Jay's voice growing fainter in his ears.

He heard Jay about to ask him something but his mind was now on something else as the bell rang and slowly he got up and threw the food he hadn't eaten away, leaving the room to head for their first session after smiling a little at his new friend before heading out the doors.


	3. Chapter 3

Mid-day 002

Tim sat in the white soft room for a few hours before Doctor C. finally came back to make sure Keith was still secure in his straightjacket they had put him in earlier that day. Doctor C. blinked a little when he saw Tim back to normal, glaring at him a little as he struggled in the tight straightjacket constricting his movements. Tim never liked someone controlling him or his movements; this made Doctor C. much less popular to him.

"You're awake," the doctor said with a small smile causing Tim to frown even more at the other man; if he was able to move his arms he would have crossed them over his chest and glared at the man in front of him but no matter how much he struggled the stupid straightjacket was just way too hard to get off, especially with the crotch belt that kept it on him when he tried to just pull it off over his head. Dang it straightjackets were a lot more complex than they showed them in the movies.

"No shit Sherlock," Tim finally said looking a little annoyed at the fact the Doctor hadn't gotten over here and taken it off him after seeing he was no longer the masked man. He stared at him a while longer since the Doc wasn't coming near him just yet and looked a little unhappy with Tim's sarcasm. "Sorry, look can you just- undo this thing? My arms are falling asleep," he complained. Doctor C. went over and undid the belts of the straightjacket, lifting it off him. Tim stretched after a second, letting his body crack a little before getting up and walking for the door.

"First treatment is down the hall, fifth door to your left," the doctor stated, Tim looking back and nodding at him before he slowly walked down the cold, dirty hall. Most of the doors in the hall looked run down, paint chipped slightly on all of them except for the one that Tim had been instructed to go through. The door was painted a nice white, the smelled of fresh paint reaching his nostrils as he approached it, grabbing the nice shiny gold colored handle and turning it, opening the door to reveal an even nicer room.

The room wasn't dirty like the rest of the rooms, actually it was probably the cleanest part of the whole facility that Tim had seen so far. The walls had a new coat of white paint on them, and there were a few cob webs here and there but it wasn't noticeable unless someone was looking for them. There wasn't a speck of dust lying about and the art canvases looked expensive and new, all the paints' colours bringing some life in the room.

Tim stared at one of the blank canvases a moment before picking up a brush and painting the first thing he could think of: French fries and a hamburger. He then made a Pac-man on the side of the canvas giving it hair and sideburns so it would represent himself about to eat said hamburgers and fries. He looked from his wok to the men beside him, realizing that they both looked rather familiar, the one with glasses painting furiously on the canvas in front of him.

The other one was the one who had looked through the window of his padded cell that looked very familiar but for the life of him he couldn't place where exactly he had met him before. He didn't exactly look like the video game type so he obviously didn't meet him at a game stop or anything and he was pale, it almost looked like he'd never left the comforts of his own home. Maybe the guy just looked like someone from school or something that Tim passed by in the hallway from time to time. He guessed it didn't matter.

He went back to drawing, making some Operator symbols in the background before realizing what he was doing. He forced himself to stop and stared at the symbols as the paint slowly began to drip down a ways and into the X making it look messily done. Tim frowned before trying to paint something over it, making red little dots for the Pac-man version of himself to go get later. He made a small red dot trail after the hamburger and fries before making a blue ghost on the side and sighing a little. He missed his video games a lot; it just wasn't fair that he wouldn't be getting out of here any time soon if at all.

"Alex?" he heard the familiar wide eyed man say, his voice sounding a little scared as he watched the brown haired young man look blankly at the canvas, his eyes glazed over as he continued to draw. Tim leaned to the side to look over at the canvas the man named Alex was using; it was filled with the symbol as well, a tall silhouette of a man standing in between a bunch of scribbled on trees. A masked man Tim knew was his other half was in the drawing too. This was weird, who the hell was this guy and how did he know about his other half and his boss?

The events that happened in front of him blurred slightly and he blacked out momentarily. When he came around he saw the nurses taking Alex out of the room and Jay looking around with wide eyes trying to figure out what had happened himself. Tim paused a second before slowly walking over to the brown haired boy. "Uhh, what just happened?" Tim asked him, unsure if Jay was going to freak out or not again like he had when he looked into the padded cell. Jay looked over at him then towards the door Alex had left through nervously.

"I… don't know," Jay replied, sounding a little scared before looking over at Tim again. "Do you know about-" He cut himself off causing Tim to tilt his head slightly not sure of what he was going to ask him. Jay saw the questioning look and shook his head, telling him to forget about him asking before walking away from everyone going back to being antisocial without Alex. Tim shrugged before going back to painting more.

Alex:

Alex walked into the white room with a smile on his face as he and Jay kept talking together. Jay was actually smiling instead of being so scared and antisocial with him like he was with the others. Alex thought that was pretty great; he was helping another patient get better. The nurses were even smiling at him as he kept Jay within their small conversations.

They each picked their own canvas, Alex grabbing two paint brushes and handing one of them to Jay with a small smile. "Let's paint together," he said sounding encouraging to Jay. Jay looked down at the paint brush with a blank look before nodding a little, smiling nervously before he slowly began painting with him, a real smile slowly spreading on his face as he drew a small sun at the top of the canvas.

The smile slowly began to fade when he noticed Alex had become quite quiet beside him. He now had this blank look on his face as he walked towards the canvas and violently began painting a forest of black trees. Trees overlapped other trees as he kept painting with that unchanging blank look on his face, not seeming to be in the same world as everyone else.

Jay looked a little nervous as he slowly tugged at his new friend's blue and black jacket but that resulted in Alex using his free hand to push Jay away slightly to get him to stop bothering him as he worked. The push was a little too hard and made Jay stumble and fall to the ground, looking up at Alex with wide eyes. Alex was acting nothing like how he had when they had met just 25 minutes ago in the cafeteria, and it really freaked him out. He slowly stood up again and looked at his friend's eyes, blinking in slight concern when he realized that Alex's eyes seemed to be glazed over as he kept drawing.

Tim watched quietly as Jay kept trying to get Alex back to normal but Alex just kept ignoring him and drawing violently before he drew that man with a camera again. Something connected in Jay's head as he looked from his friend to the canvas, his breath catching in his throat when he realized that the figure Alex had just finished drawing resembled himself. He didn't know what to say or even do after he saw the figure he had finished making, something tickling the back of his brain. The canvas was almost completely filled now, Alex's eyes starting to go back to normal. He blinked at the picture before turning to the surprised-looking Jay.

Alex moved a hand towards Jay not sure what to say to him but Jay backed up slightly, still confused over the whole picture Alex had drawn of what seemed to be him and other strange people. "Jay- it's ok," Alex said at the wide eyed young man that kept moving away as Alex took a step towards him. He was still pretty skittish but not so bad when it came to Alex for some reason. Alex didn't think Jay would run off because of this and he was correct. Alex's hand gently grabbed Jay's shoulder and Jay jumped before he slowly looked up at him.

"T-that picture…" Jay stuttered still looking scared; Alex turned to look at the picture he had no idea he had done, looking back at Jay as he stared with slight fear in his eyes. "Why did you draw m-me in it?" Alex blinked and looked at the picture again, noticing the young man he had apparently just drawn looking like the one he had drawn back at Amy's and his home just the day before. Now that Jay had mentioned it the man did actually look like the new friend he had made here.

"I don't know- I don't remember making the picture," Alex admitted, his voice sounding a little concerned himself. He wasn't sure why he had drawn him and it scared him a little but the fear bubbled over into anger again and he kicked down the stand. The paint splattered into a mess of colors as the picture connected to the tile floor below. He panted angrily before calming down a little, looking back at Jay who was surprisingly still there watching him with those natural wide eyes as nurses ran past him to get to Alex and make sure he didn't hurt anyone else. Alex struggled before forcing himself to relax; he didn't want to go to the padded cell only an hour after he had been freed from it.

The nurses picked him up and took him to his cell where Alex had to wait to get spoken to again. His head was down but when he looked up Doctor C. was there looking at him before unlocking the cell and walking in. He sat down on the other bed in Alex's room and stared at him quietly before handing him a pill and a cup of water. "Take it," he stated sounding gentle yet firm, Alex knowing that there was no arguing with him on this.

"Well- what is it?" Alex finally said, looking at the emerald colored pill in his hand before looking at Doctor C. the doctor was staring at him blankly before standing up to go to the cell door almost as if he wasn't going to tell Alex what the pill in his hands were. He turned around one more time before sighing.

"It's medication that helps with that bipolar disorder you have Alex," he finally stated, his tone had a tint of disappointment in it like he had hoped that Alex wouldn't have acted out so badly during the class before he turned to leave the cell. Alex watched him as he walked down the hall before he went past a corner out of his sight only knowing he was still nearby by the clicking of his shoes on the concrete floor before a door opened and shut, the sound of the shoes on concrete now dispersed.

Jay:

Jay walked into the art room, eyes immediately widening at everything but mostly all the people packed in the room with them. He didn't trust anyone in the room beside his new friend so he stuck extremely close to him, not wanting to chance someone attacking him if he strayed too far from this Alex guy who had been so friendly to him in the cafeteria just 15 minutes ago.

Alex led him to a blank canvas and smiled slightly at Jay who looked a little unsure of himself, the nervous man smiling back a little before looking down at the nicely polished floor. It was so clean he could see his reflection in it but every few seconds he would have to look up to answer something Alex said to him. He knew Alex was trying to make him open up a little to him but he wasn't as suspicious of him as he was of everyone else in the room or on the planet to be honest. He never thought he'd feel so comfortable near someone he had only just met but somehow Alex had managed to slip into Jay's life easily and learn more things about him than anyone else he knew including his family in just a matter of a few minutes.

"Let's paint something together," Alex said lightly, holding out a clean paint brush gently in his hand trying not to seem like a threat to the wide eyed man who nervously took the brush. He looked at it with a blank expression before smiling at Alex, a little unsure of himself, but when Alex looked away he smiled wider, almost happy as he walked over to the canvas and dipped his brush carefully into the paint. Standing on the tips of his toes, Jay reached up to make a sun on the top edge of the canvas, his expression softening as the simple action calmed him completely. "What do you think Alex?" he asked, sounding happier than he had ever been for as long as he could remember but Alex didn't reply Jay turned his head to look at him. "…Alex?"

Alex looked like he wasn't really there; his eyes were glazed and fogged over as he stared blankly at the white canvas in front of him. He walked over to it before dipping his own brush into black paint and drawing trees almost like a forest, the trees overlapping each other as Alex drew viciously at the paper, making strained sounds as he worked. He growled softly in his throat as he drew a masked man on the sheet of paper Jay recognized as the man that had paid him a visit the night before.

Alex pushed him out of the way with a shudder as he began painting another being, this time a tall man that almost looked like a tree he was so tall, seeming to be wearing a suit and tie. Jay had seen that somewhere before, but he didn't know where- Oh wait, it looked like the thing he thought he had seen in the interrogation room that had been watching him and Doctor C. while they were talking about the masked man.

"Alex?" he asked again, wanting his friend to snap out of whatever trance he was in and tell him who or what those beings were and explain what was going on. It seemed they were both seeing the same thing and if Alex was drawing the same things that Jay himself was seeing then maybe they could prove they weren't crazy. If they told Doctor C. together that they were seeing the same thing then perhaps they wouldn't have to stay anymore, maybe they could figure out exactly why they were both sharing such a vision...

Jay tugged on the soft fabric of Alex's jacket sleeve but was suddenly violently pushed down onto the nice tiled floor hard, Alex not even noticing what he had just done. Jay stayed where he had fallen for a moment, trying to process what just happened before he got up again, attempting to push him back and get him to come around but nothing he did worked as he was blatantly ignored.

Jay finally looked at the canvas and saw the new person Alex was drawing; a man with a green hat, camera, brown jacket, and brown hair. To him he knew who it was almost immediately: it was himself there near the masked man. Jay took a couple steps back, not sure if he should run from the only man he had come to trust or to stay there and hope things turned out good. Alex's hand began to slow before stopping completely and letting go of the brush, letting it clatter loudly to the floor of the room, the sound echoing loudly. No one looked up from their own work but the dark brown haired boy beside them that was drawing Pac-man and food on his own canvas sheet.

Alex stared at the completely filled canvas before slowly turning to look at the wide eyed man standing behind him looking unsure of what he should do now. Alex took a step towards him, putting a gentle hand out towards him as if trying to make him relax and trust him again, something Jay wanted to do more than anything but right now his mind was telling him not to do so when his heart was telling him to do the complete opposite.

"Jay- it's ok," Alex said, taking another step towards him and this time Jay took a cautious step away from his friend, looking like he was really considering running away but he couldn't get his feet to move, his body wanting to stay near Alex for some reason completely unknown to Jay.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder making it now impossible to run away now as he tried to process what to say to Alex now that he was talking and acting normal to him again. "T-that picture…" Jay began sounding a little more scared than he really was "Why did you draw m-me in it?" He didn't know why he worded that question that way, he didn't want to know just why he was in the picture but if who the others were and if those people were actual people and not just fragments of their imagination. Alex blinked at him, looking back at the canvas a moment before returning his gaze to Jay. Alex didn't admit it but Jay could tell he saw the resemblance in the picture he had drawn of him and Jay really wasn't crazy in assuming that drawing was him.

"I don't know, I don't remember making it," Alex admitted before feeling anger over take him, licking his stand to the floor in his fury causing Jay to make a small startled sound but didn't budge from where he was standing. Alex turned, looking at Jay before calming down a little, concerned at his friend who was just staring at him quietly. Looking a bit scared as the nurses ran passed him and straight towards his friend, Jay found himself frozen in place in fear. He couldn't move from his spot he was so frightened, a deer in headlights Jay thought and if the occasion had been different he probably would have stopped and laughed at the saying but right then was a bad time and instead he found himself unable to speak, just watching as the scene in front of him unfolded.

His head slowly turned as Alex was dragged out of the room feeling almost heartbroken when Alex mouthed, 'I'm sorry,' to him, hanging his head in defeat as he was taken most likely towards his room once again. Jay wasn't sure when he would be able to see him again and for some reason that bothered him more than anything that had just happened. He jumped as he was brought back to reality when he heard someone ask him something; he turned his head to look at the dark haired man beside him who had been drawing food on the canvas.

"Uhh, what just happened?" Tim had asked, Jay looking at the mess of paint on the tile floor, unsure of what to do; he didn't know if he should tell this strangely familiar person what he was thinking or not about why Alex had acted up. Taking a minute or two to finally come up with the conclusion that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell this person anything just yet he instead shrugged slightly.

"I… don't know," he finally said, looking defeated and scared before his mind went back to the picture of the masked man that he had had the horrible encounter with the night before; did it visit Alex as well? Now that Jay recalled what he saw of the masked man made Tim look more and more like him in his eyes yet he really did have his doubts seeing as Tim wasn't threatening him yet- he felt the need to know for sure. "Do you know about-" Jay paused, suddenly feeling like the idea of asking was more dangerous than helpful at the moment.

It was then he realized Tim was looking at him curiously; Jay shook his head before moving away from the other man and the rest of the patients, going back to believing that everyone in the room was a threat. He didn't liked the fact that Alex had just met him yet he was so comfortable when he was near him and as soon as he left Jay felt powerless and small, once again stuck in a world filled with people who stalked him and had only evil intent in store for him.

This was going to be a long day, Jay could tell.


	4. Chapter 4

((A/N:Hey everyone, thanks so much for reading this story. It has been a joy to write so far and while it is taking me time to write it all out due to the fact I have a billion other fan fictions that I'm working in let alone college preparations. This fiction is one of the most fun things I have written, something I hope people have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing. This fiction doesn't have Tim's side but don't worry the next chapter will pretty much be all about him besides Alex and Jay meeting up to explain what happened the day before but that may be fairly short in the story line. Have a good rest of your summer everyone. ))

Morning Day 003

Jay:

Jay woke up slowly to the lights flickering on and off before turning on completely. Jay grunted slightly, closing his eyes again in hopes that instead of getting up he could sleep in a while longer; it was after all the weekend. His hopes soon shattered when a nurse came in and gently shook him awake telling Jay to sit up so he could take his medication. Jay paused, looking at the nurse suspiciously but after eyeing her a few seconds took the pills and plopped them in his mouth before taking the small cup of water taking a few sips. The nurse seemed satisfied and soon left the room Jay was in and as soon as he saw she was gone he scurried to the sink in his room and spit out the water and soggy pills he believed to be poisoned. He glared at the pills a second before turning the sink on and washing them into the drain where he didn't have to worry about them killing him. He took a deep breath before sighing in relief then getting ready for the day.

He grabbed up his old bed sheets and dirty clothes and slowly rolled them all up in a ball that he could carry in both arms towards the laundry room like the other people in here had told him to do. He followed a small crowd of people, being sure not to look at them and keep his eyes casted on the dirty hall floor. As the people in front of him started dwindling down it was finally his turn to put his dirty things in in which he did quickly before scurrying down the hall to go hide somewhere where there were less people.

He quickly walked down a lone hall and checked each door to see if they were unlocked, none were except one in which Jay immediately went into and locked behind him, sliding down the wall and sitting on the cold floor as he tried to catch his breath. Too many people here, it was so stressful to the young man that he could hardly stand it. He managed get his breathing under control and his eyes began adjusting to the dark. He was in another dark hallway, the sound of a piano was playing somewhere down the hall.

Jay tensed slightly and stayed where he was; oh how he wished Alex was near him to make him brave right now. No wait, he proved himself no longer trustworthy after the stunt he pulled the day before. Yet Jay longed for a friend to tell him that everything was ok, that there wasn't anything wrong with him and make him to investigate with him. He sat there a few minutes before slowly getting up to his feet again and headed for where the sound was.

The hallways seemed different from all the rest, it was practically ruined with fire damage from the looks of it, it had been gathering dust and a part of the ceiling had collapsed. Maybe this place was being worked on and reconstructed and the men working on it was taking a break? That might explain piano music if they brought themselves classical music. Jay finally got to the door that the music was behind; it was loud almost as if there really was a piano behind it.

"H-hello?" Jay whispered and slowly opened the door a crack to look in and was temporarily blinded by light that was shining in from the room before his eyes got used to the light. The room was familiar as if from a distant memory or dream; it was a huge room with instruments all around and composer's pictures all over the room. No, he knew this room- it was an exact replica of Mrs. Thomas' music room at the college he used to attend. Though Jay had only been in that room once to wait for someone to leave it so they could hand out though Jay didn't remember who it was. He didn't recall anyone from college now that he thought about it which worried him a moment before realizing the piano music was still playing.

His eyes scanned the room before they hit a familiar young brown haired boy that he had learned to call Alex who was sitting at the piano playing with a small smile on his face, not yet realizing that someone had entered the room. His eyes were cast downwards at the piano as he kept playing before they slowly looked up, noticing an intruder but instead of looking angry him looked-embarrassed. He immediately stood up looking down at the camera near his feet. He bent down and picked it up before looking back up at Jay who looked a little surprised and unsure of what to do now since the events of the day before.

"You're late Jay." He stated with a smile "We were supposed to start filming hours ago. Where have you been?" he paused seeing the slightly unsure look on Jay's face, deciding to get closer to the young man and feel his forehead to make sure he wasn't sick or something in which immediately Jay flinched and took a step back; his memory of the day before when he had tried to get Alex back into the real world but instead got shoved violently to the floor. Alex was no longer trustworthy and Jay would not let him come near him until he proved he was not a threat. "Hey what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Jay looked away a second not wanting to show that he was hurt from Alex acting like a friend then hurting him the day before and acting like it was no big deal now. He felt the hand touch his shoulder and he immediately shrugged it away and looked at Alex with those natural wide eyes. "Don't touch me." He stated trying to sound as threatening as possible but only seemed to get a smile out of Alex. Obviously Alex wasn't intimidated by him at all which led to Jay being a tad bit frustrated. He adjusted his worn hat before looking at Alex who now had a slightly serious face.

"Jay? Hey-what happened? Did someone do something?" Alex sounded protective, something Jay had never heard in the one he had considered his friend the day before. Jay looked away again getting more and more frustrated over the fact that Alex didn't seem to remember or care that he had hurt him the day before. He moved back a few more steps before running towards the door and grabbing the door knob ready to open and slam it. "Jay, wait!" Alex called after him.

Jay looked back a second before looking at the door and noticed the wood was getting older, the nice white paint beginning to peal and fall off in front of his eyes as if it had aged 20 or so years causing Jay to panic and open the door quickly and run down the hall. His mind not yet registering what had happened. He heard Alex's voice begin to fade into an echo before disappearing all together as Jay got to the end of the hallway. Grabbing that door and swinging it open, ending up in the new dusty hallway he had been in earlier that day. He didn't stop running there; he was in a blind panic as he ran down the hall before bumping into someone hard causing them both to fall.

Jay immediately got up off the person, his eyes unnaturally wider than they normally were from the shock of what he had seen. He looked down a moment still not knowing who he had fallen on top of and saw the brown eyes of Alex who was looking up at him in surprise. "Jay? What's wrong?" he asked "did someone do something to you?" Jay's heart began to beat faster at the memory of the room in the dumpy hallway where Alex had asked the same thing before the door began to change in front of his eyes. He moved away from him before running down the hall again away from the young man and the hallway he had found on mistake.

He finally managed to get to his room and fell back against the sheet less bed anxiously, wishing that he hadn't put his blanket in the laundry room so soon. He felt absolutely insecure without something to hide under and hide himself. He laid there silently feeling his eyes getting hotter as tears welled up in his eyes at the reminder of what he had seen the last few seconds before the fear strike at the thought of the door and seeing a room that looked like a room from his college. Was he seeing things? Was this a result of not taking the medication that the nurses tried to force him to take in morning? He actually hoped it was and that what he had seen wasn't in fact real but just another hallucination of his. He laid there for a while crying slightly before his eyes became heavy and he went to sleep.

Xxx

Alex

Alex had had a fairly normal day the first half, though not seeing Jay made him feel a little anxious considering he felt the need to apologize to him for the day before. He didn't want his only friend in this dirty crazy place to dislike him because of something he couldn't control. As he walked down the hallway he saw Jay running full speed towards him causing Alex to fill with hope at the thought that maybe Jay was running around to look for him but the hope soon shattered as they collided and fell to the dirty floor.

He fell on his back and let out a small sound of pain, he felt like when he woke up the next day he'd be welcoming a new bruise to his body from colliding with the floor. He looked up at Jay about to say something when he noticed the look on his face. Jay was pale, deathly pale and his eyes were even wider than normal. His body was shaking as he struggled away a moment before his eyes casted down at Alex. Something was wrong; terribly wrong and Alex wanted to know who or what had done this to his new friend.

"Jay? What's wrong? Did someone do something to you?" He asked with a concerned tone but Jay didn't answer him, instead Jay backed up a moment before running away again. Towards Jay's own room causing Alex to blink a little surprised at that strange display before walking towards the room only to be stopped by the young man named Tim who seemed a bit off.

"Alex. We need to talk." Tim stated lowly catching Alex slightly off guard, his voice seemed a little different even but that didn't seem to strike anything in Alex instead he looked at him silently not doing anything yet . Maybe he knew something about what had happened to Jay or maybe it was about the painting thing that had happened yesterday. Either way those were both important topics to him today and he needed to clear the painting thing up with both Tim and Jay and he hoped Tim knew what had startled his friend.

"What do we need to talk about?" Alex asked and only received a small static sound coming from Tim's lips before Tim looked down trying to figure out how to word it then look up again. His eyes clearly wild as if he was no longer himself but some wild animal that had wandered into the asylum they were forced to be in. Alex recalled what happened when the masked man had hidden in the padded room Alex had been stuck in and how the voice was similar but just shrugged it off for now. It couldn't have been him, he had believed that person had escaped then.

"Your painting." Tim hissed before looking at him long and hard then looking down the hall a moment "You drew someone in a mask and the Tall one-" Alex was about to say something but the tone in Tim's voice was threatening. Alex blinked a moment suddenly realizing that Tim was more of a threat than anything at the moment so he took a step back only to have Tim grab him by the shoulders and slam him into the wall a few feet behind them. Alex's and Tim's breathing were both harsh from the adrenaline rushing through their veins. Their breathing in sync as they stared at each other; Alex's eyes were wide with fear before they narrowed and he tried to shove Tim off of him. "Get off me!"

But despite the angry warning Alex put out there Tim didn't let go of him causing Alex's anger to bubble over. He angrily put his hands on Tim's shoulder pushing him away from them. Tim growled angrily thrashing around violently trying to get away from Alex's hands so he could attack him and confront him once again about the painting only to get punched in the face with such a force that it made Tim topple onto the floor with a loud yelp. Alex immediately made a mad dash down the hall hoping to get away from the man who had confronted him, not daring to look behind him.

He could tell that the man was getting closer though as they ran down the hall, Alex needed to find a place to hide. Then fate; there was a door down the hall a few yards away from him causing Alex to speed up, running full speed for the door. He finally reached it and reached for the nob. He opened the door quickly and fell inside, slamming the door behind them and not a moment too soon because Tim was now at the door clawing at it angrily, growling as he tried to get in.

Alex looked around the room; it was run down, much more run down then the rest of the hospital. Bits of the ceiling had fallen through and the windows were shattered in this particular room but right now that didn't matter. Right now he needed to find something to put in front of the door so he could make sure the other man couldn't get inside. He found a dresser and began to push it towards the door, his eyes focused on the rotting material his hands were on before he heard his name being whispered around the room. It sounded almost like Jay's voice but Alex knew that couldn't be considering Jay had run off to his room just minutes before, surely it wasn't him and he was in fact going crazy. He simply continued to push, not knowing when Tim would come back to attempting to push the door open but whenever it was it would be too soon.

The whispering began to get louder as if the person stating his name was progressing towards him; the sound of static filled his senses for a second before he blinked and took in the new scenery. Somehow when he had been overwhelmed with static he had been escorted to a different location; it looked like a brand new home that was being moved into. Boxes lined the walls, some furniture was covered with a thin plastic to keep them safe from being torn in a moving van, and someone was scooting something inside the house.

Alex was immediately on his guard, assuming it was probably Tim having somehow brought him here to attack him once again. His adrenaline began to stream through his blood stream preparing him for flight or fight mode before he came face to face with-Jay? But unlike the Jay he was used to, the Jay in the asylum this Jay seemed happy and healthy. He had a bright smile on his face that seemed to light up the room and his skin slightly tanned from working under the sun for hours on end.

Jay chuckled slightly, wiping the sweat from his brow as he looked around the room he and Alex were in. "Still can't get over how nice this place is." Jay whispered before looking at Alex, smile still on his face "Wish I could afford a place like this." He then noticed the now completely new looking dresser that Alex had been pushing in the asylum before looking at Alex curiously "Need help with that?"

Alex looked at the dresser a second, completely in awe at the fact that it looked and felt brand new when just moments before it had been broken and rotting underneath his fingertips when he had used most of his strength to move it. He put a gentle hand on it, not believing how strange this was before looking at Jay and nodding a bit. "Uh, yeah, if you don't mind…" Alex began, sounding a bit at a loss for words as Jay walked next to him, putting his hand on the side of the dresser and began to push. Alex paused a second, taking in the scenery once again before pushing again himself and finally it rested in front of the door before Alex stopped pushing and stood back, taking in their work. Jay attempted to push still as Alex moved away before realizing that the spot it rested was where Alex wanted it to be before slowly moving back to look as well.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"The uh- the dressers in front of the closet, how are we going get into it?" Jay chuckled a bit, Alex paused a moment before frowning and turning away to grab another box and began unpacking, might as well just let the hallucination play out.

"We're not."

"Why?"

"Jay, just drop it, it's not important." Alex retorted sounding like he was at the end of his rope before realizing that the wall he was closest to was beginning to peel around the bottom. It looked like it was ageing a bit, but slowly.

"Uh, alright…"Jay whispered, sounding a bit unsure of himself before going to another box and began unpacking it beside his friend silently. They worked in silence a minute of two before Jay looked over at Alex again, looking a bit confused and worried "Hey Alex…can I ask you something?"

"What, Jay?" Alex was surprised at how almost angry he sounded, he wasn't mad at his friend for anything, not even really annoyed yet his voice said otherwise. Jay winced slightly at the tone before sighing and shaking his head a bit, going back to work causing Alex to look at him in anticipation "What?!"

Ok, he really didn't mean to sound that angry, what in the world was going on with him? This was not how he normally would have spoken to someone, not even if he was angry. Everyone who knew him knew he never really was quick to anger and when he finally did snap he would yell for a second before immediately apologizing and going off somewhere to brood but…no apologies escaped his perced lips as he stared at Jay silently, aware now that he was actually glaring at the young man who was doing nothing but helping him and probably was wondering something that could easily be answered. _'Calm down Alex, calm down._'

But he found that he couldn't calm down, instead he began to angrily pull things out of the boxes and slamming them down against the floor, he was worried if he continued this that sooner or later something fragile would either chip or shatter completely in his unnecessary fury he was somehow unable to control. Jay had flinched when he had been yelled at but remained silent for a short time.

"You just seem…different…I'm kind of worried about you. We all are."

"We?"

"Brian….Tim…?" Jay stated softly, using his tone to hopefully calm his friend down. It seemed to do the trick and mentally Alex was thanking his friend for that. Alex looked at Jay silently a moment before shrugging before looking towards another end of the room, seeming to be looking for something before light glistened against the lens of a camera; his camera from college. He had gotten rid of it when he moved in with Amy but something about the camera being here was eerie, something that he was worried would set him off in another fit of rage if he wasn't careful.

"Alex?" Jay asked this time his voice was echoing once again, causing Alex to whip his head in the direction of where Jay was sitting. Jay was somehow fading away, he was becoming transparent but Alex knew that was coming. But then the walls began to chip and peel around him, falling off the walls like leaves in autumn, and to his surprise…some of them looked like they were burnt or burning still. He grabbed one after a moment and immediately flinched back in pain, somehow they were hot. This didn't seem to be just a simple hallucination after all but within moments his surroundings changed back into the room he had been in early except this time, the dresser was securely in front of the door, two pairs of shoe prints molded within the thick dust of the floor.


End file.
